Royal Edinburgh: Her Saints, Kings, Prophets and PoetsOliphant, Mrs. (Margaret)
History
Royal Edinburgh: Her Saints, Kings, Prophets and Poets
Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret)
Edinburgh (Scotland) -- History
Knox returned to Edinburgh in 1572, in August, the horrors of the
struggle between the Queen's party and the King's, as it was called, or
Regent's, being for the moment quieted, and the banished citizens
returning, although no permanent pacification had yet taken place. He
had but a few months remaining of life, and was very weary of the long
struggle and longing for rest. "Weary of the world, and daily looking
for the resolution of this my earthly tabernacle," he says. And in his
last publication dated from St. Andrews, whither the printer Lekprevik
had followed him, he heartily salutes and takes good-night of all the
faithful, earnestly desiring the assistance of their prayers, "that
without any notable scandal to the evangel of Jesus Christ I may end my
battle: for," he adds, "as the world is weary of me, so am I of it." He
lived long enough to welcome his successor in St. Giles's, to whom, to
hasten his arrival, he wrote the following touching letter, one of the
last compositions of his life:--
"All worldlie strength, yea even in things spiritual, decayes, and
yet shall never the work of God decay. Belovit brother, seeing that
God of His mercy, far above my expectation, has callit me over again
to Edinburgh, and yet that I feel nature so decayed, and daylie to
decay, that I look not for a long continuance of my battle, I would
gladly ance discharge my conscience into your bosom, and into the
bosom of others in whom I think the fear of God remains. Gif I had
the abilitie of bodie, I suld not have put you to the pain to the
whilk I now requyre you, that is, ance to visit me that we may
confer together on heavenly things; for into earth there is no
stability except the Kirk of Jesus Christ, ever fighting under the
cross; to whose myghtie protection I heartilie commit you. Of
Edinburgh the VII. of September 1572.
JHONE KNOX.
"Haist lest ye come too lait."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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